Friday, February 17, 2012

Dark Chocolate Brownies to Celebrate 4 Years of Blogging!

Guess what today is? Four years ago I started this blog! I know, I can’t believe it either! It’s certainly been real and it’s been fun. There’s no stopping me now! ;)

I made brownies as celebration! I’ve decided there are two simple treats that I like more than any other—and I’ll bet you’ll never guess what they are—good ol’ chocolate chip cookies—and they have to be good, like my favorite chocolate chip cookies (which are my adaptation of the Jaques Torres/NY Times cookies) and the other favorite is brownies.

I have stuck with my adaptation of this favorite brownie recipe for a couple years now. Whenever I come up with a new brownies, I use the basics of this recipe. It’s simple and only used a few ingredients. I’m always surprised how fudgy it is because the only chocolate is from cocoa powder! I have made these brownies with caramel and pecans added for a Turtle Brownie as well as with a layer of coconut and sometimes almonds for a Mounds or Almond Joy Brownie. In my first link for “favorite brownie recipe”, which was the Tuesdays With Dorie Tribute to Katharine Hepburn brownies, I made them four times, four different ways for that TWD post!

What am I getting at? Well, I tried another recipe—and I’m tempted to say it might dethrone the other favorite! I suppose these aren’t the same as my other favorites, since they have melted dark chocolate and more flour, but I do plan to do a side-by-side comparison—you know, just to find out for sure which we like better. For these brownies I adapted a recipe found at the Nestle’s website, Very Best Baking. The only real difference I made to the recipe is that I used different chocolate than the recipe called for. Of course, their recipe suggested using Nestle’s Dark Choc0late Morsels, but I didn’t have those and I always have my favorites, Ghirardelli’s 60% Cacao Dark Chocolate Chips. So that is what I used. You could probably use any brand of your favorite chocolate. Here’s my version of the recipe.

Dark Chocolate Brownies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1 2/3 cups Ghirardelli 60% Cacao dark chocolate chips, divided use

1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)

1/3 cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons water

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup all purpose flour (150 grams)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup toasted, chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with non-stick foil, so that some hangs over the edges. Lightly spray with cooking spray.

Heat in a medium sized saucepan 1 1/3 cups of the chocolate, sugar, water, and butter on low heat until all melted and combined. Remove from heat and pour into a medium sized bowl. After about five minutes rest time, add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each to combine. Add the vanilla and combine. Add the flour and salt and stir with a spatula until just combined. Add the toasted, chopped walnuts and the 1/3 cup extra chocolate chips to the batter and stir to combine. Pour into the baking pan and spread evenly. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

Cool completely on wire rack. Remove brownies from pan using the foil edges. Peel off the foil and cut into desired sized bars on a cutting board.

This picture is the brownies right after they’d just cooled enough and I didn’t chill them in the refrigerator, as I do with other brownies. Kevin thought they could have baked a couple more minutes (I baked them 35 minutes). But I think they were prefect! It will be fun to try these again with other add-ins and see if they compare to my other favorites that seem to work so well with any kinds of additions.

Four years—still can’t really believe it! I started my blog just thinking I was going to keep my family and friends up-to-date with the boys. I’ve said it before, I just put some cake pictures of Sam’s first birthday party on here and then for some reason my favorite cinnamon rolls. Next thing I knew, this whole wonderful world of food blogging opened up before my eyes. I often say that baking and sharing and blogging are my sanity—which with this house full of boys I often find necessary! Keeps them fed and me sane. Sounds like a good combination. ;) And here I am, four years later with just noticing yesterday that I now have 400 followers on my blog and 200 “likers” on Facebook. I’m part of a couple of food forums that I often find some of the people as my best friends and favorite people on earth! Sure hope to be baking and sharing and food blogging for another four—plus!—years! Catch ya soon! And thanks for sticking with me!

Congratulations on four years! I remember the first post I saw on your blog was for Sam's 1 year birthday party. I thought he was the cutest kid I'd ever seen. :-) These celebration brownies look awesome, so rich and dense. As you know, I'm in complete agreement about the two favorite treats.

Happy Anniversary. Of course, I don't believe that Parker and I got to vote on the recipe for the day, but that's okay as it's your day! So happy you are out there blogging. For selfish reasons, of course...I would miss you if you weren't. xo

Happy blogaversary Katrina!!! Those brownies look perfect to me and a great way to celebrate. Love me a good fudgy brownie! Love following along with you and the family and you always amaze me with what you got cookin' up. Here's to another 4+ years. :)

Wow, congratulations on 4 years of blogging, that's such a huge accomplishment! And what a way to celebrate, these brownies look so fudgy and moist! Can't wait to see what your blog has in store for the future :) Hope you have a wonderful upcoming year!

Happy Anniversary! What a wonderful way to celebrate with something so decadent! I love dark chocolate and your brownies sounds perfect! I love your recipes and your post. Keep up the wonderful work and I look forward to reading your future posts. Have a beautiful weekend.

What an indulgent celebration Katrina! I love these...YUM! I love Ghirardeli too, and they are always in the bag from whoever visits from the US. You cannot imagine what a luxury I treat them as. Those bronies are singing the nom nom nom song to me! Congrats on this very special milestone!!